The present disclosure relates to an image processing device and an image reading apparatus including the same.
In an image reading apparatus, such as a copying machine and a scanner, when an image of a book, particularly a thick book having a large number of pages, is read, the book is placed on a platen in an opened state of a desired page and scanning is executed. At that time, if a bind portion of the book is floated from the platen, a noise of black pixels is generated at a part corresponding to the bind portion in a document image. Because such a noise is unneeded by a user, it is desirable to automatically eliminate the noise.
In a certain image reading apparatus, the noise is eliminated in a simple process, such as a labeling process, by extracting a connected region of the black pixels. Such a manner poses no problem if a range corresponding to the noise region of the bind portion is a blank (i.e., a region containing no character information). However, if the significant information, such as characters and pictures, is contained in the region, the significant information may be eliminated together with the noise.
Due to that, there is an image reading apparatus configured to determine a range in which a noise of a bind portion of a book is searched in an input image, to specify a noise region of the bind portion within the determined range, to separate the noise region from other information region, and to eliminate the separated noise region.
In such a manner of the image reading apparatus, since it is difficult to completely separate the noise region of the bind portion from the other information region, intensity of elimination of the noise is selected by the user, and then, a parameter is finely adjusted.
However, because the user is unable to readily understand how much the noise should be eliminated, the user is required to find a suitable setting by reading or copying an image by many times while changing the intensity of the elimination of the noise. As a result, extra labor and wasteful reading or copying of the image may be coerced.